Despite being out in the cold for the first two games versus Gloucester and Newcastle, the fly-half was named in the match-day 22 against Wasps and came off the bench for the injured Nick Macleod to make an impact.

He scored 21 points in all including the second try and also set up Mark Cueto's touchdown as the Sharks secured their second win of the season.

Diamond said: "We've got a lot of competition in the squad and people have to fight and play in the second team on a Monday night and Danny's done that.

"He's come back, come on and done what he does well. He controlled the game with the pack giving him some ball. He played really well, he won us the game.

"Everyone talks about Danny Cipriani but we just want the consistency. He's come on and proved his worth. What he needs to do is do that regularly."

Another who impressed after coming on as a substitute was Mark Easter. The number eight was not even named in the initial squad but a spate of injuries meant he was called into action.

"At the end of the warm-up James Gaskell had an issue with some tenderness on the bottom of his foot as he can't put pressure through," Diamond added.

"We then brought Josh Beaumont on who's a kid but a physical lad and was doing well before he got injured.

"Fortunately Easter hadn't had a couple of beers before he was called from upstairs to put my boots on, somebody else's gumshield and play well for 60 minutes."